Anniversary of VM Molotov's death, Nov. 8. 1986

 

 

November 8th, besides being the anniversary of the Russia's October Socialist Revolution, is also the annivesary of Soviet leader Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov's death, in 1986.  Molotov (whose assumed last name, replacing Scriabin, comes from the Russian word for hammer, molot, according to Wikipedia), was born March 9. 1890, in what is now Sovetsk, Kirov oblast, and joined the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party in 1906.  He was a supporter of Stalin and held various posts, such as member of the Central Committee and later the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, chair of the Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom), which became the Council of Ministers after WWII, making Molotov the Minister for Foreign Affairs, deputy chair of the State Council of Defense during the War, and Ambassador to Mongolia and later the USSR's representative in the International Atomic Energy Commission when Khrushchev removed him from the central leadership.  He is best known in the US for negotiating a non-aggression agreement with Germany that allowed the partition of Poland and the setting up of spheres of influence around the Baltic Sea at the start of WWII.  This temporarily helped Nazi Germany and was a zigzag in previous policy, but was a brilliant move that was made necessary by the refusal of other European countries to ally with the USSR against any German aggression and the apparent desire of the great powers to have Germany and the USSR destroy each other (for example, encouraging Germany to look east by the UK's betrayal of Czechoslovakia). 

 

I think some communists believe Molotov was the logical leader to replace Stalin, while others think he was a collaborator with Khrushchev.  A good book to consult is Molotov Remembers, a book of conversations between Molotov and Felix Chuev between 1969 and 1986 (Molotov was retired and removed from the CPSU by Khrushchev in 1962, but was allowed to rejoin the Party in 1984).  The English translation actually contains less than half of the contents of the Russian version and is edited by an unsympathetic emeritus professor of history at Northern Illinois University, Albert Resis, and it is possible that Chuev himself selectively edited what Molotov actually said, so the book should not be considered definitive about what Molotov really thought.  I read it a while ago, and from what I remember, Molotov sounds like a sincere revolutionary communist, who wanted to serve the Soviet working and peasant classes, and who would have continued many of Stalin's policies along those lines.  There are things to disagree with that I remember, such as some cultural Russian-centeredness and support for a state of Israel, while acknowledging how bad Israel turned out, and preferring an "Arab-Israeli union," which is probably the most just solution left now.